Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Well, another year has sneaked past me and 2014 is one sleep away. Unsurprisingly, it flew by, so there's a need to slow down and look at the year that passed. Here's what was on my agenda in 2013:

Taking photos: While I only completed 55 days of the 365 project, I took a lot of photos regardless. I also ventured from taking glorified selfies to photographing actual models. Here are a few of my favourite photos that I took this year:

What I'll take from 2013: Taking selfies is a fun way to practice photography, but taking photos of a models can come as a relief when I'm sick of seeing my own face. Here's to more collaborations with models in 2014. What I'll leave in 2013: The 365 day project. Taking a good photo everyday is just impractical. It's different if you're taking photos to simply document your life but if you want to do proper artistic shoots then I think it is a tad unrealistic if you've got other commitments.

Travelling: I was lucky enough to be able to visit a few places this year... Kicking the year off was my trip to Prague with Fotosoc in January. We had a mental time and even managed to get some pretty pictures out of it!

As soon as I recovered, I felt I needed my fix of the Czech capital once again. So I returned, but not before making a few pit stops around The Netherlands and Germany. On my interrailling stint I discovered Amsterdam, and I fell in love with the friendly people and chilled out atmosphere. One day, I'll live there. We were also unashamed tourists in Berlin and Melissa and I got photos by the wall:

What I'll take from 2013: Travelling for consecutive weeks is more manageable than I first thought. Yes, I came home shattered after my two week gallivant around Europe, but I was okay. I could have managed a full month and still come back an unbroken woman. I think 2014 calls for a longer stint travelling.What I'll leave in 2013: Spending way too much money when I'm supposed to be on a budget trip. Unfortunately, I didn't realise until after the interrailling that eating every meal in a cafe was costing a bomb (even though it seemed quite cheap at the time).

Celebrating: 2013 was a big year for birthday celebrations. My best friend Sorcha turned 21 in spectacular style, hosting a party complete with glitter, teacups and adorable bunting. Oh and the cake was cut with a machete - pretty standard. My not-so-little-anymore brother turned 18. And I walked into my 21st with a Bohemian bang.

What I'll take from 2013: The macaroons. They look so gorgeous and are pretty tasty too (though I must admit I like them more for their aesthetics). What I'll leave in 2013: I wish I could leave my birthday in 2013, can't I just be 21 forever? I fear that I'll be feeling less Taylor Swift when I'm 22 and more Greg James.

So, that was my 2013. It's been fun. Now, to see what 2014 has lined up for me. Happy New Year everyone! :D

Tuesday, 24 December 2013

In the lead up to MPS's 24 Hour Broadcast, Style Soc chair, Freya Drohan, produced a fashion show which flaunted the key looks for the season. Christmas day (tomorrow - eek!), Stephen's Day and New Year's are all covered, so have a little gander at the video below. All the outfits are from Oasis.

I was asked to come along and take some photographs of the outfits, so here they are! The tree in the background is the one at the top of Grafton Street. Looking back at these photos is making me feel all festive! Scroll down to the bottom for the credits.

I love any excuse to get dressed up, and a big Irish wedding is the perfect occasion to pin up my frizzy hair and don unreasonably high heels. My first full day back in my home county and I was treated to a huge family party - because, let's be honest, that's what a wedding amounts to! The wedding of Henry and my darling cousin, Caroline, was undoubtedly the family event of 2013.

Somehow we were the first to arrive at the wedding - surprising since I'm inexplicably late-for-everything, usually. They had yet to even roll out the red carpet... Which you can see rolled up next to us, slightly spoiling our photo, above.

Letterkenny Cathedral was as chilly as you'd expect for an Irish winter wedding. To be honest, it didn't bother us ladies because it gave us a reason to continue to show off our fabulous (our word of the day!) coats. The photo below shows my mum, my cousin, Katie, and I in our seats in the church. My mum was wearing an undeniably fab faux-fur coat from Pippa Boutique. She has given me permission to borrow it, so yay to that! She better keep an eye on it if she doesn't want it to disappear with me to Dublin after the Christmas break. My coat was from Dorothy Perkins and, while I'm not sure where Katie's is from, I can safely say that she was not a step behind in the fashion stakes.

Anyway, enough about us insignificant guests, let's chat about the gorgeous bride. Or, the 'princess', as Katie so sweetly put it. Caroline looked absolutely stunning, walking down the aisle in her white dress, with her dad. Aww!

After the ceremony we all hopped into our cars and drove to Harvey's Point for the reception. I'd never realised what an amazing venue this was until last week. A group of us sneaked into my cousin's hotel room. It was the deluxe room (she was lucky enough to nab a free upgrade!) and it was complete with a huge bathtub, a mini bar section and a bed which could fit 8 people (we tried and succeeded).

I really do love weddings... Family reunite, we drink and dance together, and we eat. And boy, did we eat. The sheer amount of food provided was incredible. After the soup, we were presented with a buffet starter selection, and we could pile as much as we wanted onto our plates. Now, as anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes will know, I enjoy food. A lot. And the starter just so happens to be my favourite part of a meal. So you can imagine my delight when presented with an excess of 20 different dishes to pick and choose from. Noodles, rice, prawns, ham, fruit, were all piled on and balanced on my plate. There was a similar layout for the dessert including fresh crepes and a chocolate fountain. Divine.

Anyway, once the plates were cleared and there was plenty of time for dancing... And lots and lots of photos. The iPhone is not the device to get if you want to control your narcissism - every shiny surface passed was another photo opportunity!

Monday, 23 December 2013

As promised, here are some extra photos which didn't make it into the magazine (click here to see the photos that did) from the Trend Report photoshoot. It was such a fun shoot, and the first I've ever done in a proper studio with models! It was fun, and I'm getting a bit better at directing models, so that's good! Anyway, here's the photos, scroll to the bottom to see the credits and a behind the scenes video too.

Hello! I'm finally able to curl up with my laptop to update my blog! I have been gone for too long but unfortunately, it was pretty much unavoidable - it's been nonstop with college and the likes for at least a month. But, now that the assignments are submitted and I'm back at the family home I finally have time to blog! Hooray!

So what's been keeping me super busy this past month? Well, luckily it hasn't just been coursework... I've been doing plenty of society stuff. One major project that I'm super proud of is my work with The Look magazine - I designed the whole layout from scratch! Have a read of it by clicking here.

I'm really proud of it, especially seeing as I taught myself InDesign over the summer! Feedback is greatly appreciated, so if you have any suggestions on how to make the next edition amazing - let me know in the comments!

As well as doing the layout for the magazine I also took some photographs for it... So I'll update the blog with some extra shots from the Trend Report photoshoot soon!

Hey you, I'm Claire. Welcome to my blog, Technicolour Dreamer. I'm a 24 year old making my way in New York City. Find out more about me here. Oh, and while you're at it, have a browse of my blog. Make yourself at home. Leave a comment. And subscribe.